Monday, May 14, 2018

Amazon will resume construction on a Seattle skyscraper in the wake
of the City Council’s decision to tax its top-grossing businesses $275
per employee, per hour worked, each year. But the company is “very
apprehensive” about its future in its hometown because of “hostile
approach and rhetoric toward larger businesses.”

For the past few weeks, the city has been considering a $500 “head
tax” on businesses with more than $20 million in annual revenue, a price
tag that led Amazon to pause construction on its Block 18 office tower
and reconsider whether it will move into the massive Rainier Square
office complex. On Monday, the city unanimously approved a smaller
version of the head tax — also sometimes referred to as the “Amazon
tax.”

Amazon issued the following statement, from Vice President Drew Herdener, in response to the vote:

We are disappointed by today’s City Council decision to
introduce a tax on jobs. While we have resumed construction planning for
Block 18, we remain very apprehensive about the future created by the
council’s hostile approach and rhetoric toward larger businesses, which
forces us to question our growth here....